I was particularly interested in the differences in opinions about the goals of education highlighted in this unit. Everything from the length of the school year to which students should be in which school, is highlighted and debated in this unit. The income disparities between districts, highlighted by Reese, are still very evident today. Since I work in a low income district it is easy for me to point out the impact the lack of funding has on my school. Everything from the age of the materials, textbooks, etc. , the appearance of the school and the technology available impact the students on a daily basis. The students themselves know and resent the income disparity that impacts their school and while it is an avenue to discuss and explore, it is also disheartening to hear how this impacts the students.
I also agreed with another idea that about the role of public schools, that, “(W)henever anything goes wrong in the life of the nation the public looks to the school for a remedy (Reese, 121).” I think it is interesting that at the same time that the schools are looked to solve that nation’s problems, that they are not given the tools to do so. When societies problems help to cause the problems seen in schools, schools are often the most criticized for them as well. I feel like the glaring inequities in funding pointed out in the readings this week struck a chord with me. The inequities in schools are still largely along class and racial lines. These disparities in the last 50-100 years are still evident in many areas but rarely talked about. Reading about the overt racism in casting all immigrants as being lazy and incapable of learning, in particular, is just astounding. One of my favorite articles from undergrad is “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, I think it does a wonderful job of deconstructing privilege and how it is often not acknowledged.
The ideas of student centered learning that Dewey advocated, are concepts that I feel I’ve learned and strived to put into practice. He advocates teachers to educate students as whole person, with a diverse set of needs. Student’s interests and needs are included and on the opposite end, Cubberley advocates tracking, which we still see today in schools. I don’t agree at all with his argument of only teaching certain material to ‘students who can go to college’. Starting out at such a young age, telling students they aren’t capable of going on to college or are only suited for a certain type of work has such a detrimental impact. Students need to be encouraged and nurtured, not sorted into different categories based on a test.
I feel like the two categories of tracking and lack of adequate funding are inextricably tied. By allowing tracking, or any more politically correct version of tracking, to exist in schools they can justify reasons for not having all students going to college or being encouraged to do so. If students are deemed to be in the ‘non college’ track, it is seen as acceptable that ‘those students’ aren’t getting a post-secondary education. Students that aren’t encouraged or feel that they aren’t capable of achieving, often fail to try to reverse that perception. This happens far too often and it is disturbing to me that today, some people still believe that this is ideal. Predictably many more of these students are in low income districts and this makes the cycle of inequality all the more likely to continue.
In the push for education reform, I do like that the requirements for graduation are becoming increasingly more stringent, requiring students to take more math, English, Social Studies and now two years of a foreign language. I think this is a great direction to move in. Students need to be prepared to interact and participated in a global society and to do that they will need to be bi- or multilingual as many other countries encourage their students to be. At the same time, I can’t begin to see where the districts will get the money to fund that large of a language program. Our school of 1200 has only one full time language teacher. We have 3 other classes, two French and one German, offered per trimester. With the current budget limitations I can’t begin to imagine how our school would begin to meet this graduation requirement.
Reese, W. J. (2006). America’s public schools: From the common schools to “No Child Left Behind.” Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Additional Resources
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
By Peggy McIntosh
www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
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